Volume 7 — Translated From Der Katholik. The Ancient Irish Church.

The history of the ancient Irish church, for many reasons, claims our respectful attention. In the time of the migration of the European races, this church had a great mission to accomplish among the Germanic tribes. When the Goths had overrun Spain, the Franks and Burgundians conquered Gaul, the Anglo-Saxons invaded Britain, the Vandals spoiled Africa, and the Lombards gained strongholds in Italy; when the Alemanni and Sueves had penetrated into the valleys and claimed the mountains of ancient Helvetia; who was it in those stormy times that elevated the moral condition of those peoples, drew them out of the darkness of German paganism, or converted them from Arianism; regenerated them internally, civilized and incorporated them into the kingdom of God, after they had devastated the provinces of the Western empire, leaving ruins, deserts, confusion, and desolation behind them in their plundering march? It was the missionaries of the ancient Irish church that rescued Europe from the barbarism of that period. Evidently sent by God, those Irish missionaries founded new Christian colonies in different lands, hewed down the forests, civilized the deserts, founded churches, schools, and monasteries. As the Roman empire without the barbarians was nothing but an abyss of slavery and rottenness, so would the barbarians have been a wild chaos without the monks. The monks and barbarians combined produced a new world which we call Christendom.

Germany also owes much to the missionaries of the ancient Irish church. In the olden time Ireland was called the "island of saints and sages;" as her people in our days receive from us the honorable title of "martyr-nation of the west," for their inflexible fidelity to their faith during three centuries of shameless and brutal persecution. "No one but God in heaven knows the number of the saints whose dust is mingled with Irish soil," wrote one of the oldest Irish writers, the biographer of St. Ailbe of Emly. We count, not by hundreds, but by thousands, the holy Irish bishops, abbots, priests, monks, and virgins. Even in the days of St. Patrick, and still more after his successful apostolate, Ireland was not only a great training-school for foreign missionaries, but a second Thebais, in which the exercises of the spiritual life were thoroughly practised, and where students could devote themselves in solitude to the study of philosophy and holy writ under the ablest professors. Pious men went from Britain, from the European continent, from France, and even from Rome, to the classic and holy "island of saints," to learn the doctrines of Christian perfection, literature, and theology, in the renowned monasteries of the land of Columba and Colombanus.

Even to this day Ireland is specially favored by God. There are no snakes in it or other venomous reptiles. The very dangerous portion of the animal kingdom is entirely excluded from its sacred ground; and all attempts to naturalize poisonous creatures there have been unsuccessful. The old Irish rhyme reads:

"St. Patrick was a holy man, He was a saint so clever, He gave the snakes and toads his ban, And drove them out for ever."

Throughout Ireland there are great fields of wheat and grain of every description, and many lakes. The climate is mild, and snow so rare that cattle can graze in the fields all the year round. Rain showers are frequent, and give such fertility and verdure to the soil as no other land in Europe possesses, so that the island is known as "Green Erin," or the "Emerald isle." The plants, flowers, and trees of Ireland, in their shape, color, and material, remind one somewhat of Normandy in France, or of Asturia in northern Spain.

The History of the Ancient Irish Church has been just presented to the public by an author who is in a better condition than most of his contemporaries to write such a work, which charms us more and more the more frequently we read it. We speak of the recent work of the Bishop of St. Gall, Dr. Charles John Greith, in which we recognize one of the greatest efforts of German historical literature. We cannot, therefore, refrain from imparting to our readers an epitome of the contents of this remarkable and highly interesting production. The right reverend author considers his work of four hundred and sixty-two pages as an "Introduction to the history of the Bishopric of St. Gall." He published the book on the commemoration and centenary of the consecration of the cathedral of St. Gall, August 17th and 18th, 1867, and dedicated his literary effort to the chapter and the clergy of his diocese. From early youth the distinguished author has been familiar with the legends and history of St. Gall, and studied them with love and veneration. Love for that great Irish missionary saint, whose worthy successor Dr. Greith is, inspired the work whose continuation we desire most earnestly. "St. Gall has left behind him a world-wide reputation as the apostle of the Swiss Alps. Centuries have not diminished his fame, which the gratitude of Christians sanctions."

Veneration for St. Gall has been spread far beyond the boundaries of Switzerland; from the foot of the Alps to Upper Burgundy and Alsace, even to the limits of the Vosges; then into Brisgau and the Black Forest, to the Suabian Alps, and thence into Nibelgau, and Algau. In all these regions, the monks of St. Gall imparted the blessings of religion and education. Full of admiration for the Christian zeal of St. Gall and his disciples, our author recalls the words spoken by Ermenreich of Reichenau, to Abbot Grimald of St. Gall, over a thousand years ago: "How could we ever forget the island of Ireland, from which the rays of Christian light and the sun of Christian faith have shone upon us!" Taking this expression for his motto, the right reverend writer gives us his magnificent History of the Ancient Irish Church and its Connection with Rome, Gaul, and Germany.

Divided into six books, the work describes in the two first the migrations of the barbarians and the fall of the Roman empire; then the heresies which swarmed in the church of the period; then the school of the island of Lerins, where St. Patrick, the apostle of Ireland, was instructed. The four last books are consecrated to St. Patrick and his apostleship in Ireland; to St. Columba, the apostle of Scotland; to St. Colombanus and his deeds in France, Flanders, and the north of Italy; and to St. Gall, the apostle of Germany. The sixth and last book treats of Christianity and its customs in the Irish church.

The illustrious author made use of manuscripts as well as printed works in the compilations of his history. Many manuscripts were at his disposal in St. Gall itself. The original sources of ancient Irish history consist of different materials; genealogies which trace the origin of kings or saints and their relatives; annals which give the year of the death of saints, or of other distinguished characters; church calendars which give the day of the month on which the death of a saint occurred; and finally, the lives of the saints themselves. These biographies are copiously used. We cannot restrain our desire to quote what the author thinks of those sources of history. "Erudition is not sufficient for us to judge the biographies of the ancient saints; we must have sympathy with them in their zealous labor; and a spiritual relationship in their faith. Every age must be judged according to the ideas, and customs which prevail in it; and every saint according to the circumstances in which he lives." The poetic as well as the historical element, the legendary as well as the authentic, must be combined in forming a correct estimate of a saint's character.

Even in the early part of the middle ages, every cathedral church, large monastery, or distinguished hermitage, possessed its hagiographers, who wrote the lives of the saints of the place, either from authentic written documents, traditions, or from knowledge acquired as eye-witnesses. Since John Moschus published his collection of legends, extraordinary diligence in the criticism and sifting of the ancient biographies of the saints has been manifested in the church. The collection and critical works of the Bollandists, of Lurius, Mabillon, d'Achery, and others, keep their reputation undiminished to the present day. These writers display such a thoroughness in their researches, that the modern rationalists have been unable to find a flaw of any consequence in their criticism. The truthful historian must describe those apostles of religion and civilization among the Germans, such as they were, children of their century, representatives of its ideas, views, and manners. Following this method, he will not cast doubt on the purity of their motives, or try to lessen their merit in drawing entire nations of barbarians out of the darkness of paganism and immorality into the light of Christianity and virtue. The blind party spirit of our times recognizes no justice, and modern paganism is only satisfied when it can throw everything that is noble and holy out of history. The modern pagans tear with scorn the Holy Scriptures into shreds before our eyes, and subject to a lawless criticism the ablest records of ecclesiastical history, while they try to overturn every monument that might shelter the weary pilgrims of earth on their road to heaven.

II.

The most trustworthy documents regarding the first traces of Christianity in Ireland, inform us that up to the time of Pope Celestine I., (a.d. 422-432,) that country had not been converted. Up to the year of our Lord 432, no Christian missionary had trodden the soil of the island, or caused the light of faith to shine over the hills and through the valleys of green Erin. Palladius and Patrick were the first apostles, (A.D. 430.) It is true, several High-Church English writers have endeavored to prove the establishment of an Irish church prior to St. Patrick; but this theory is unsupported by any authentic documents. Besides, the attempt of those writers was prompted by the partisan desire of proving an original separation in belief between Ireland and Rome. Nevertheless, it is not improbable that many non-commissioned Christians may have gone from Britain and Gaul into Ireland before the year 430, and formed small communities, or lived scattered among the heathens. "On the wings of every day commerce, the flower-seeds of Christian faith must have been borne to Erin from Britain and Gaul; as from the earliest times direct business relations were kept up between Nantes, other harbors of Armoric Gaul, and Ireland. To the north-west of Gaul also came the Irish rovers, under the guidance of some distinguished chieftain, in quest of plunder, and frequently carried off Christians into captivity. In this way St. Patrick, when a youth of sixteen years of age, was taken from the coast of Armorica by the pirates of King Niall, and with many thousand others detained in bondage, as he informs us himself in his writings," (p. 86.)

Besides the fact that there was no Irish church prior to St. Patrick, though there may have been individual Christians in the country, we must prove that the Christianity imported into Ireland was Roman, and that her apostles received their mission from the pope. Pope Celestine, in the year 431, sent Palladius, deacon or arch-deacon of the Roman church, as the first missionary. This apostolic man, who had long been casting his eyes toward Britain and the other western islands of Europe, had a double and very important task to execute in Ireland, namely, to strengthen the dispersed Catholics in the faith, and to evangelize the heathens. He landed in Hay-Garrchon, penetrated into the interior of the country, baptized many, built three churches in the province of Leinster; but, taken altogether, his mission was unsuccessful, and he met with much opposition. "But when Palladius understood that he could not do much good in Ireland, he wanted to return to Rome, and died on the voyage, in the territory of the Picts. Others say that he received the crown of martyrdom in Ireland."

What Palladius begun—but which God's providence willed to remain incomplete—Patrick accomplished in sixty years of apostolic labor. Him God chose as the instrument, and fitted him for this holy work. That he received his commission from Rome from the hands of Pope Celestine, A.D. 432, cannot be doubted; for the fact is confirmed by a crowd of witnesses, both Roman and Irish. We must, therefore, consider and reverence Patrick as the apostle of the Irish people.

All the early Irish annalists unanimously agree that his mission began in the year 432, and that he died in 493—an apostleship of sixty years! How great and glorious for him and for his people!

Patrick was born A.D. 387, in Boulogne-sur-Mer, in modern Picardy, and was of noble Roman origin. In his sixteenth year, in a marauding expedition of an Irish clan called Niall, he was carried prisoner to Armoric Gaul; thence to Ireland, and there sold to a pagan officer named Milcho, whose swine he herded for six years. After this, he escaped, and returned to his native land. Having fully determined to consecrate himself to the service of God, he went to Marmontiers, the monastery of St. Martin of Tours, to study there the principles of Christian science and perfection. A few years after, he visited the happy island of Lerins, near Marseilles, at that time one of the most famous schools in Christendom, and met there, as fellow-students, the holy monks Honoratus, Hilary, Eucherius, Lupus, and others. An interior voice there told him that he should return to Ireland to preach the Gospel in that country; and he therefore travelled from Lerins to Rome, in order to represent to the holy see the darkness of heathenism which brooded over Ireland. But, as the apostolic see was not then in a condition to provide for the Irish mission, Patrick went back to Gaul, and remained with St. Germain of Auxerre, under whose guidance he made further progress in holiness and learning. Such was his life up to the year 429.

In this year he accompanied Bishop Germanus and Lupus to Britain, who were sent by the pope to root out Pelagianism in that country. Thus was Patrick prepared for his apostleship.

It was then he heard of the mission of Palladius, and its failure. (A.D. 431.) The holy Bishop Germanus cast his eyes on Patrick, who knew the Irish language, people, and country from personal observations. Did he not seem peculiarly fitted—sent, in fact, from heaven, to undertake the conversion of the Irish nation?

Patrick, therefore, with the priest Legetius as his companion, went to Rome, and received from Pope Celestine his blessing and the necessary authority to undertake the task of converting Ireland. It is hard to tell now whether he was consecrated bishop by Celestine before his departure, or by Bishop Amatorex, of Eboria, a city in north-western Gaul. He reached Ireland in the first year of Celestine III. A life of continual triumphs began for him. He was repulsed from the coast of Dublin: no matter; he sailed for Ulster, and landed at Strangford. He converts the chieftain Dicho and his whole house, and celebrates his first Mass in Ireland in a neighboring barn. At the royal city of Tara, he meets King Leoghaire, with all his clan; defends and explains Christianity in their presence, and gains a victory over the Druids. Dublach, a Druid and poet, is converted, and sings, for the future, only hymns in the honor of the true God. The daughters of the king, Ethana and Fethlimia, also bow to the yoke of the Gospel, and consecrate their virginity to God, and many other holy women follow their example. Thus, a happy beginning was made in the island.

Soon the converts number thousands. Everything succeeds; the conversion of the Irish people was effected without persecution or martyrs. Patrick frequented the national assemblies, and used the occasion to preach to the multitudes. He destroyed idolatry and idolatrous practices throughout the whole land, and built churches to the living God on places that had hitherto been dedicated to the worship of idols. Wherever he went, he baptized crowds of men, provided the new Christian communities with churches, made the most virtuous of his disciples priests and bishops, and appointed them to govern the faithful, and extend the reign of the Gospel.

Thus did he labor year after year, going about preaching, baptizing, and blessing, in Leinster, Ulster, Munster, and Connaught; and everywhere his astonishing activity and self sacrifice effected wonderful results. Everywhere the people were ready and docile for the reception of Christianity. Divine Providence wonderfully protected him from all danger.

But when the whole island was converted to Christ, congregations formed, and churches erected in all parts of the country, St. Patrick thought of building a metropolitan cathedral for the primate of Ireland. He chose for this purpose the heights of Admarcha, or Armagh, near which stood the old royal fortress of Emania. After the building of his cathedral and the conversion of the Irish, St. Patrick passed the remaining years of his life partly at Armagh, partly at his favorite spot at Sabhul, where he began his missionary career. He assembled a few synods, wrote his Confession, as it is called, on the approach of death, and was attacked by his last illness at Sabhul. When he felt his end approaching, he collected his remaining strength, and endeavored to go to Armagh, which he had chosen as the place of his burial; but, warned by a voice from heaven, he returned to Sabhul, and died there eight days after, on the 17th of March, 493.

III.

Let us now glance at the disciples and followers of this great man. They followed up his work with such zeal and indefatigable activity that, at the end of the sixth century, Christianity was spread over all Ireland. We distinguish, in the Irish church, "Fathers of the First Order," and "Fathers of the Second Order." The holy men from Rome, Italy, Gaul, and especially from Wales or Cambria, who followed St. Patrick as their leader, and aided him in his labors, are the "Fathers of the First Order." Patrick brought with him from Rome, in the year 432, nine assistants; in the year 439, Secundinus, Auxilius, and Iserninus, were sent to him from Rome. The two former of these, together with Benignus, were present as bishops at the first synod of Armagh, in the year 456. Bishop Trianius, a Roman, another disciple of St. Patrick, imitated so exactly the life of the great apostle, that his food was nothing but the milk of one cow, which he took care of himself. The first mitred abbot of Sabhul was Dunnius; and the first bishop of Antrim was Leoman, Patrick's nephew. The oldest Irish bishops appointed by Patrick, were Patrick of Armagh, Fiech of Sletty, Mochua of Aendrun, Carbreus of Cubratham, and Maccarthen, of Aurghialla. Seven nephews of St. Patrick, who followed him from Cambria, are invoked in the Irish litanies as bishops. They are the sons of Tigriada, Brochad, Brochan, Mogenoch, Luman; and the sons of Darercha, Mel, Rioch, and Muna. When the heathen Anglo-Saxons conquered Britain in the year 450, and sought to destroy the old British church, many learned and pious men fled to Ireland, and joined Patrick. Thirty of them were made bishops, and devoted themselves to the special task of converting the neighboring islands. The most renowned of these Welsh missionaries are Carantoc, Mochta of Lugmagh, and Modonnoc, who introduced the rearing of bees into Ireland, where they had never been seen before. Three companions of St. Patrick—Essa, Bitmus, and Tesach—were expert bell-founders, and makers of church-vessels. The fact that Patrick was sent from Rome, that his first assistants were Romans, and that his co-laborers from Gaul and Britain were sons of the Roman church, completely destroys the Anglican hypothesis of an Irish church independent of Rome. Even Albeus, who, on account of his services, was called the second Patrick, Declau, and Ihac, the apostles of the Mumons; Enna, or Enda, the founder of the great monastery of Aran; Condland, Bishop of Kildare, all disciples of St. Patrick, were educated and consecrated bishops in Rome. There also were Lugach, Colman, Meldan, Lugaidh, Cassan, and Ciaran, consecrated and afterward numbered among the earliest bishops and fathers of the Irish church.

From the time of St. Patrick, continual communication was kept up between Rome and Ireland by countless pilgrims, as many documents attest, (Greith, p. 142-156.) Patrick left his love and reverence for the Apostolic See of Peter as a precious legacy to his immediate disciples; and they, in turn, to their successors up to the present day. The frequent pilgrimages of Irish bishops, abbots, and monks, are facts so well proven, that the Anglican theory of a separate Irish church is shown to be a pure invention, no longer contended for as truth by any respectable historian.

Let us now pass to the fathers of the second order in the Irish church, and their illustrious foundations. The founders of those numerous Irish monasteries, which counted their inmates by hundreds and thousands, those men who were mostly brought up by the immediate successors of St. Patrick, belong to the "Second Order of Irish Fathers." Twelve of them, instructed by the renowned Abbot Finnian, at Clonard, are called the twelve apostles of Ireland. At their head stands Columba, the apostle of the Picts, shining among them like the sun among the stars. Their names are, Columba, of Iona, Corngall, of Bangor, Cormac, of Deormagh, Cainech, of Achedbo, Ciaran, of Clonmacnoise, Mobhi, of Clareinech, Brendan, of Clonfert, Brendan, of Birr, Fintan, Columba, of Tirgelass, Molua Fillan and Molasch, of Damhs-Inis. These holy men erected all over Ireland and in the adjacent isles churches and convents, which became centres of art, learning, and sanctity. The monastery of Clonard, founded in Meath by Abbot Finnian, contained during his lifetime three thousand monks. At Clonmacnoise, a monastery founded by St. Ciaran, in the middle of Ireland, agriculture was made a special study; and Monastereven on the Barrow, Monasterboyce in the valley of the Boyne, Dearmach, etc., were renowned institutions. These first and oldest Irish monasteries were not large, regularly-built houses, but composed of numbers of separate cells or huts, made of wicker-work, stalks, and rushes. The church or oratory stood in the midst of the huts, and was made of the same material. It was at a later period that the Roman architecture was introduced into Ireland; and then stone edifices took the place of the primitive structures. Special mention is always made in the Irish annals of the erection of a stone church, for the people preferred wooden buildings, and their preference shows itself up to the twelfth century. The stone churches were looked upon as the fruit of foreign architecture, as St. Bernard informs us in his life of St. Malachy. The Roman church gradually introduced into Ireland the fine arts and a higher order of architecture, as she had done at an earlier date in Gaul and Britain. Choral singing became usual. The church hymns took the place of the Druidical rhapsodies; and the muses of Inisfail forgot to sing of heroes, and learned to tune their harps to sing the praise of Christ and his saints.

The Irish missionaries reclaimed barren lands and made them fertile, ameliorated the condition of agriculture, spread commerce, and discovered new islands in the sea. Many of the Irish saints, at the period of which we are writing, were great navigators.

Dr. Greith paints in glowing colors the life of St. Columba and his labors in Ireland, the Hebrides, and Scotland, as well as the discipline and rules of the Abbey of Hy, which was founded by him. We cannot enter into details, but refer the reader to Dr. Greith's book. Columba was born on the 7th of December, 521. In the first half of his life, Ireland was the scene of his zeal; the second half was spent among the Scots and Picts. In Ireland he founded Durrow, Derry, and Kells. He went with twelve disciples to Caledonia in the year 563. Christianity among the Scots had degenerated; and the Picts were still pagans. The king of the Picts, Brudrius, gave him the island of Iona or Hy, where his works began which God crowned with wonderful success. He soon became the beacon light for all the faithful priests and laity of Ireland and Caledonia. He visited Ireland to counsel his noble relatives, settle their disputes, or oversee the churches and monasteries which he had established, and travelled among the Picts preaching the Gospel, founding monasteries, and erecting churches which should consider Iona as their mother. He built thirty-two churches, to most of which monasteries were attached, in Scotland; and eighteen among the Picts, in the space of thirty-three years, (563-597.) Even during his lifetime he was so celebrated that, from all sides, princes, nobles, bishops, priests, monks, and the faithful of all classes ran to him for counsel in their difficulties, consolation in their distress, and help in their necessities. Columba fought against the superstition of the Picts, the cunning of their magicians, and the wickedness of lawless men. Princes' sons, whose fathers had lost their lives and crowns in battle, went to Iona to lay their grievances before Columba, and to each one according to his need, the saint gave consolation and hope. The common people brought their children to him, to ask him to decide their vocation. It was not an unusual spectacle to see kings and nobles lay aside the insignia of their greatness at Iona, and break their swords before its altars. Columba's prayers were very powerful. His blessing controlled the elements and the forces of nature. He seemed to rule nature as a lord. He had also the gift of prophecy. He died June 9th, A.D. 597. His departure from life was made known to many holy men in different parts of Ireland and Scotland at the same time, who declared that "Columba, the pillar of so many churches, had gone to-night to the bosom of his Redeemer." The isle of Iona was illuminated by a heavenly light, emanating from the countless angels who came down to take up the happy soul of the saint to the bosom of his God.

The Irish monasteries increased wonderfully during the sixth century. Finnian's monastery at Clonard, as already mentioned, contained 3000 monks; and that of Bangor and Birr had the same number; St. Molaissi had 1500 monks around him; Colombanus and Fechin had each 300; Carthach, 867; Gobban, 1000; Maidoc, Manchan, Natalis, and Ruadhan, each 150; Revin and Molua were each the head of several thousand. There was no common rule for all those convents, like that which St. Benedict wrote for the religious of his order, (A.D. 529.) Each monastery had its own laws. Columba had made no special rule for Hy or for his other monasteries. St. Colombanus was the first who collected and methodized the customs and traditions of Irish monastic life.

A thorough investigation of the most ancient custom of the Celtic church, proves that it was in communion with the church of Rome. The trivial differences between the two churches regarded neither dogma, nor morality, nor the essentials of the Liturgy, of the Mass, or the Blessed Sacrament. The supremacy of the pope was recognized by all the Irish; and the celibacy of the clergy observed as in the other Western churches. In the ceremonies of the Mass, it is true, there were certain usages and forms observed not Roman, as was the case also in the churches of Spain and Gaul. The rites of baptism in the Irish church were simpler than those of the Roman. The difference mainly consisted in the style of the tonsure and in the time of celebrating the Easter festival. The Irish and Britons did not keep the reckoning of the Abbot Dionysius the Little, as he is styled, regarding Easter, and tenaciously clung to the old Roman calculation. Every departure from it seemed to them contrary to the traditions of their fathers. It was only in the year 716, and after hard and bitter fighting, that perfect union between Rome and Ireland was effected in this particular.

The history of the Irish, as well as of the British church, is of the greatest importance for Germans who want to know the origin of Christianity in their own land. But we shall develop this point in a second article.